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Biography
Brendan Smith (born June 1956) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency since 1992. He previously served as the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (2008–11) and Minister for Justice and Law Reform (2011).
Born in Cavan in 1956, Smith was educated at Bawnboy national school, St. Camillus College (Killucan, County Westmeath), and University College Dublin where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Economics. For 15 years he worked as special advisor to the Fianna Fáil politician and former Tánaiste, John Wilson.
Smith was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency and has been re-elected at every subsequent election. In the 28th Dáil, he was Government Whip on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. In Bertie Ahern's 2004 cabinet reshuffle, Smith was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture.
Following the 2007 general election, Smith became Minister for Children at the Department of Health and Children succeeding Brian Lenihan, Jnr in that position.
On 7 May 2008 he was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Brian Cowen's cabinet. In July 2010 Smith launched the Food Harvest 2020 strategy. Its overall target to increase the value of Ireland's agri-food and fisheries exports by €5bn to reach €12bn by 2020. A September 2012 progress report on the Food Harvest 2020 strategy found that farmers and other primary producers had passed the halfway mark towards meeting their 2020 targets.
In 2010, during his term as Minister for Agriculture, he offered free cheese to Ireland's poor via a European Union scheme that had been around since the 1980s. The public received Smith's announcement poorly and it was reported outside Ireland as the country became "a laughing stock internationally". Smith was then forced to defend his own scheme.
Following the resignation of Dermot Ahern in January 2011, Smith was also appointed as Minister for Justice and Law Reform.
Just before leaving office, Smith gave the go-ahead for genetically modified organism (GMO) foods to enter Ireland. He told the media that Ireland had “altered its voting position” and would back proposals from the European Commission “aimed at authorising the placing on the market of food, food ingredients and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize and cotton”. Smith also said that Ireland would now tolerate “the low-level presence of, as yet, unauthorised GMO varieties in imports of animal food”.
He was the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Education and Skills from April 2011 to July 2012. In July 2012 he was appointed as party spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade; and Border Region Development.